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The Most National of Mid-Term Elections

By Lorne Manly November 7, 2006 10:01 pmNovember 7, 2006 10:01 pm

A major theme of tonight’s coverage across all the networks is just how much today’s voting is a referendum about President Bush. In a discussion about the Tennesse Senate race on Fox News, Brit Hume said that this midterm election has been nationalized more than any other.

On CNN, Paula Zahn and the analyst Bill Schneider delved into the Rhode Island Senate race and Senator Lincoln Chafee’s apparent loss there against the Democratic challenger, Sheldon Whitehouse, to explain this theme. Mr. Chafee, one of the more moderate Republicans and someone who voted against the war in Iraq, still found himself the victim of voter anger over how the war is going, according to exit poll data cited on CNN. As Mr. Schneider said, voters “really liked” Mr. Chafee. But it didn’t matter, according to the results of CNN’s exit polling.

It is interesting how people are voting not so much for representation for their own state, but to seek a majority of their party preference in Congress. The internet has a lot to do with this. I had been working with MoveOn.org calling people all over the country, not just my own state, to encourage people to vote Democrat. This may be a new turn in the evolution of the political process in this country, where people are voting for local state politicians on a national level.

An underriding theme of the 2004 election was to for voters to give Bush a second shot and to put their faith in him to lead us through the war among other issues (remember “free Iraqui elections”).

He had come into disfavor just before the election when it was determined that there were in fact no WMD’s in Iraq. Nevermind all the ill will he had created against the United States by essentially giving the UN the finger and entering the war without any allies (everyone else knew better) and then complaining that he had no support. There was also the Terry Schiavo case over which the country was understandably divided and Bush’s questionable intervention. And let’s also not forget how he ostracized Colin Powell.

Despite all of the above, he implored the American people to give him another chance in 2004 and to let him make good on the promises that he’d made. Fast forward 2 years and there has been no discernable progress in the Iraqui war. Americans watched in horror as Bush set about trying to sell American ports to Dubai companies.

He flagrantly disregards the US Constitution at every opportunity including performing widespread wiretapping despite the district court’s determination that it is illegal and shipping persons off to military prison camp without even a pretense of due process. And he still refuses to fire Donald Rumsfeld.

Let’s also not forget about Katrina and how the U.S. Military was conspicuously absent for 3 days (the president for nearly a week.)

If it were not bad enough that Bush has squandered the trust of the American people, Congress, who is supposed to represent the people and provide checks and balance of the president have failed to even attempt to stand up to him. (Even the Courts have found a backbone… and Bush is both penalizing them and re-writing the law to circumvent their power.)

I honestly believe that many Americans, whether Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Green, Working Families, etc. are simply tired of what has come to be the status quo and want their Democracy back. They have seen what the incumbents have to offer and now want something, anything else.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…